pilottobombadier

Fallout 2 heavily penalises you for killing children, Cyberpunk 2077 is like GTA with the wanted levels; in most games, there are heavy penalties for killing civilians that, if explored, only get harsher. The difference in Cyberpunk vs. GTA is that if you accidentally kill a civilian (i.e. unintendaed hit-and-run), the police are on your ass right away. In GTA, that's not the case unless you shoot/stab them. However, GTA's wanted levels are far more penalising. At three levels in Cyberpunk, I was easily able to get away. At 3 levels in GTA, good luck. GTA 5 I think goes up to 6 wanted levels. At 6, you're fucked. You're doomed. Game over, man. Far Cry 6 will kill you if you off three innocents or allies in a row. So, I think that, by and large, games do a pretty good job of showing you that that shit is not okay.

Oh, best Not-Doom games. Hmm. Long list for me, too. Immediately coming to mind: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Diablo 2 Fallout: New Vegas Cyberpunk 2077 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (I don't think it gets nearly enough love) Goldeneye (N64) Final Fantasy 6 (if you haven't played the Pixel Remaster, you should; amazing job) Genesis: Alpha One (after all of the patches, it is so worth it) Star Wars Episode 1: Racer Lego Marvel Super Heroes

Just finished Final Fantasy 5 Pixel Remaster. I have to say, 3 and up have so for been nothing short of incredible. Will be starting 6 next week, need to take a break. Turn-based RPG'ing and constant ATB (because, you know, grindy JRPG's) get old quickly enough. Starting on Warhammer 40k Boltgun next, already three levels in.

PCSX2 works quite well, though there are still a few games that didn't emulate over well. Other than that, as long as you're not trying to use Mixjoy with one of Koei's Warriors titles (at least using the ROMs, I didn't try it with my discs), it's great. I'm currently between games. Just started the War for Wakanda campaign in Marvel's Avengers, dabbled a little bit more in Cyberpunk 2077 (just found out that the Grod sniper rifle can shoot through a lot of things), and flitting in between Doom running Doom RPG + RLA and Project Brutality 3.0.

I have beaten Halo 2. I have not beaten Doom Eternal yet, and every time I go back and reinstall to try again, I go "fuck it" and erase it. I really want to like the game. I mean, I actually really like the platforming, and I like the combat when it's not janky*. What I do not like is the repeated arenas. OG Doom was a lot more free in movement than that . Someone once compared this to I think it was DMC and Street Fighter, I would compare it to a bastard child of Serious Sam and Unreal Tournament 2003, with some added lore that tickles overly-enthusiastic fanboys' jimmies. I mean, the DBZ lore, if you will, does not appeal to me. I don't care how powerful the character appears to be, I care how powerful they are. This game makes me feel like a fucking punching bag on normal difficulty. So, as much as I despised Halo 2 due to its bait-and-switch advertising/ending/design process, at least I've finished it. Halo 2 wins.

Only because they're going to spend it on their politicians first, lets be honest :P I went with the Yes-Man ending, and I think I went there almost every time because I'd try to get into the other sides' ideologies, and it was pretty much "nope". The NCR is a little too much like the United States under Bush Sr. Legion is like Rome in its infancy, when it was really, really awful place. House is despot. BoS is lost (and they're much bigger assholes than in previous titles, save 3). You can also annihilate the street gangs (which I did), although the Kings are the lesser of the evils, if I remember correctly. The Boomers are nutjobs. And every one of them is some kind of tribalistic shitbag. The Yes Man ending takes all of that away, and allows people to just continue living their lives. Yes, some psycho might come along, but probably not while The Courier is alive (pretty sure the notion of messing with the person that single-handedly wiping the floor with The Legion will be a pretty intimidating thought), which gives The Courier time and opportunity to train new protectors for that world.

I'm not a monarchist, I really couldn't give a flying fuck about that. But I am a humanist. It sucks for the decent members of that family, having to publicly (regardless of whatever the cost of what they do is) grieve for what is a mother, aunt, grandmother, etc. It isn't something that most of us are ever forced to do; we get to experience our grief with all the people that our lost love ones mattered to on more than just a superficial level, and do not have to share that with anyone that we don't want to. All of the money, all of the jewels, all of the possessions in the world, cannot refill that loss in people that genuinely cared about Queen Elizabeth II from a deeper perspective, and I'm not talking about fans of the monarchy and the gossip that surrounds them, who have no idea what emotions they're tapping into that they're not entitled to. Those of us firing off at the monarchy, yeah, they have too much means that they shouldn't be entitled to (which is probably why some members bust their asses to give back). But try to let them grieve in peace. Some of them are actually sincere and hurting deeply - and it's not for us to judge whom, because their emotions are their own, not ours - and the less of the public they have to share that with, the fewer snippy comments that they read or have read to them, will be a kindness. This is a time and event in any one's life that you, I, or anyone else would be hurt much deeper by the twisted knife than usual. Some of them are, as human beings, already overwhelmed. Stop trying to make it harder.

I don't have much experience with the PSX, skipped it when I was younger and have a hard time going back to it now, but there were some titles worth mentioning: Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat Die Hard Trilogy Alien Trilogy Syndicate Wars (plays similarly to Syndicate on the SNES, so pretty esoteric controls) Norse By Norsewest (a port of Lost Vikings 2) Tomb Raider 2 Gran Turismo Alundra (like Legend of Zelda; it's an action-adventure game, not an RPG) Star Wars: Dark Forces Powerslave Urban Chaos Megaman X 4 Crusader No Remorse Ravenloft: Iron and Blood (DnD Ravenloft-universe fighting game) Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (also on the SNES, PSX version is at least as good)

You guys are going to hate me for this, but I actually really liked Windows 10's UI. It was a a great compromise to old+new, unlike Windows 8, which moved too far too fast. I agree with 11, I really do not like what was done with the Start menu; at least you can left-align, but I can't move the bar to the side of my screen anymore without editing the registry. Due to the fact that I have a tech support job, I'm not messing with the UI because my customers lack the...experience to do so. Makes it a lot easier to guide them if I need to. But jesus h fucking christ, I'm using a PC, not a tablet!

Currently reading Nothing Lasts Forever, which Die Hard as based on. Interesting story. Quite a few differences between the book and movie (though they both take place at Christmas).

Hot tip: Ginger beer (alcoholic or otherwise) goes very well with Jack Daniels.

Playing through Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, on ME2. Oh my goodness was Mass Effect mediocre. I got bored on playthrough 2 on my 360 years ago, I figured it was just overexposure. Nope. But 2 is absolutely incredible in comparison (though its aiming mechanics are bad; shoulder swapping should have been built-in to this alleged remaster)...and I thought 2 was inferior at first because there wasn't as much planetary exploration. Yeah, let's not go there. Once I'm done 2, I might go back to Skyrim, or dive into ME3. I remember 3 being a little slow to get into, but a wild ride once I was in, all the way up to that bullshit ending.

No it doesn't play that way. It's much worse than that :P Although on the subject of The Elder Scrolls: The only good part about Oblivion was it's soundtrack, the rest is shit. TMNT 2 on NES is only great if you don't have access to an arcade, or a port of the arcade version. Or MAME, can't forget MAME. Early 3D has aged extremely poorly, far worse than early 2D gaming. Total Recall on NES is actually a good game. Rygar on NES is still actually really good. The original arcade game has been shit since day-one. I think that's a good start.

Why are we making the Predator the hero? That's the point I'm getting at. The predator has almost never been the hero, unless fighting xenomorphs. Not only that, The Predator has always been the villain of its own films. I'm not sure why this would change? To go back to John Wick: John Wick is a protagonist, he is not a hero. He's an anti-hero. And, specifically, he's a bad guy fighting off worse guys, who got back into the business as soon as he went on his revenge trip, and he knew it. He was given the "Two Graves" speech right in the first movie, and he ignored it for hubris. That also makes him a tragic character. He also loses sympathy for welching on a promise (John Wick 2). While he is literally fighting for his survival, he brought all of it on his own head. So, the events in the third movie are now cause-and-effect of his own actions. Back to the main point: Yes, you can make a Predator movie involving the Inuit, where they hunt it; it would not take a lot of effort to make them heroes. The Predator literally kills shit for sport, the Inuit do not, and would fighting back against it for survival; they live in harmony with their environment (or at least try) in order to keep the group alive whereas the Predator is an element of chaos that lives for personal glory. So what if it's "incompatible" with their environment? That's the Predator's problem. It's the asshole that chose to drop in and literally hunt the denizens for shits, giggles and social commerce. Ultimately the Predator would do its thing, prove itself a significant threat to the tribe/band, and then they'd hunt and kill it. Interestingly enough...just like everyone else does, incidentally enough. So, no mental gymnastics needed. In fact, if mental gymnastics were put into play, that's where the film would fail badly. That's a big if, Hollywood doesn't always give a fuck, we know this. Or, even when they do, they still miss significant shit. For instance, the Comanche were speaking English. Although it is slick that they had the French fur trappers speaking Acadian, I did appreciate that point. Why? You could just make it a reverse-slasher, where the villain has pissed off a hero or anti-hero that it wasn't prepared for. That's basically what John Wick is.